That day there was the sound of a voice traveling over Saturn, from east to west and from south to north. None had heard its like before, but its meaning was comprehended by all; and the messenger, though unseen, was recognized as the emissary of the highest. Men and women, youths and maidens, and little children, lambent in snow-white flames, came forth from their dwellings, and from the shadows of the groves; up from the murmuring watercourses they came, and from the coolness of the moss-draped ravines; they left their works and enjoyments, their meditations and their worshiping; they stood upon the mountain-tops, and gathered upon the seashore, and gazed skyward, listening and mute, while the flying voice passed over them, leaving its words of warning and exhortation behind. The songs of the birds were hushed as it went by, lest their careless music cause the message to be missed; the animals stole into their coverts, and the Nature people scurried in and out of the forest glades and caverns, awed and excited, they knew not why.
As the voice swept on, region after region of the mighty planet, with their multitudinous communities, caught the call to duty, and gathered in their places, to be ranged by their leaders into rhythmical cohorts and battalions, to subdue their myriad impulses into one impulse, to turn their innumerable thoughts into one thought, to communicate through the linked hands and measured footfalls, through long inter-weavings and choral chantings, the gathering strength of one will welded of all wills into a single flawless and irresistible chain.
And still the warning voice swept on, searching out the farthest valleys, arresting the wayfarers across the plains, overtaking the voyagers upon the boundless lakes, pausing not for tropic heats or arctic colds, never pausing or faltering, resolute to bear the tidings to every creature, and to keep faith to the last. Many there were that marveled who the messenger might be, but there was no answer. Zarga’s face was veiled; she performed her mission unknown and unsuspected; only her voice announced her. And only her secret heart knew whence came the strength that enabled her to persevere to the very end.
But when the long day was done she found herself among the sublime and icy silences of the virgin north. No creature lived here; no plant grew; enormous snowfields extended in smooth undulations; immemorial glaciers sloped silently from the mountainsides; frozen peaks glittered aloft, pointing to the unmoving stars. She alighted near the mouth of a great ice cavern, very weary but content. The duty laid upon her had been accomplished.
With the last strength remaining to her she crept into the cavern; to her failing eyes it bore a likeness to the chamber in the crystal mountain which her art had adorned for the festival of love, never to be consummated. A dark splendor of colors glowed within, receding into beautiful mysteries of gloom. Zarga dragged herself to the center of the cavern, and lay down, pillowing her golden head on a lump of ice. She might rest, at last!
“It was for him I did it!” she said to herself; “He will live and be happy with her, and I, too, am happy. He will never know that I died for him; but Lamara will understand, and she and the spirit will forgive me much, because I did my best to make amends.” Her eyes closed, and there was silence, never to be broken.
CHAPTER XXXI
TORPEON
TORPEON now fought single-handed against the maddened thousands of his subjects. He laughed as he fought. He cleared a space around him, and at every wave of his truncheon a man fell. But they still came on, for they were desperate. They knew that, so long as Torpeon survived, misery, torture, and death would be their portion. The gage of battle having been thrown down, there could be no truce or quarter until he was slain; and if he were to be victorious, so much the more reason for them to fight to the death. They hated him more than they loved their own lives. They had served him in fear, and groaned in their servitude. Now the hour had come for liberty or annihilation.
“Snatch his truncheon from him,” they shouted to one another. “Tear him to pieces!”
Torpeon smiled, and death leapt out from his hand. But they still drove in upon him, for they were very many, and the fight was to the finish.